Breakthroughs in the field of new materials are often hidden in the details of steadily advancing industrialization projects. At present, there has been new progress in the Tianjin Petrochemical cyclic olefin copolymer project in the Nangang Industrial Zone of Tianjin. The procurement work of the pneumatic conveying system has started, which means that the project has shifted from civil construction to the key link of equipment installation. This project, with a total investment of about 50 million yuan, is not huge in scale, but it carries the expectation of domestic high-end cyclic olefin material localization. It is not only the landing of a new production device, but also an important step for the transformation of the refining industry leader into a high value-added new material track. The market is looking forward to the stable supply of domestic COC materials as soon as possible.

Clear project milestones

This project aims to build a 1000 ton annual COC production facility, which is the first industrial project of Sinopec in the field of high-end cyclic olefin materials. It is also one of the first projects to be registered after the integrated management of Tianjin Nangang Industrial Zone. According to the established schedule, the project is planned to be completed in June 2027 and put into operation in September of the same year. After the device is fully loaded, it is expected that the annual output value will exceed 100 million yuan. At the current stage of the project, the procurement of pneumatic conveying system is a signal for the comprehensive implementation of equipment installation work. Various supporting facilities will be gradually brought into place to ensure the orderly progress of the overall project schedule.

Significant material gap

Cycloolefin copolymers are high-performance thermoplastic materials made by copolymerizing norbornene with ethylene or alpha olefins. They have advantages such as high transparency, low birefringence, low water absorption, and excellent biocompatibility. The annual consumption of COC in China is about 27000 tons, and the self-sufficiency level is not high. The market relies on overseas supply for a long time. In terms of consumer structure, the optical field accounts for nearly 54.9%, mainly used for precision optical lenses, while in the medical field, it is used to produce pre filled syringes and medical packaging. The two high-end tracks continue to release stable demand, and there is a vast space for domestic substitution.Keywords: Tianjin Petrochemical, high-end polyolefin, domestic substitution

Advanced Industrial Energy Storage

For Sinopec, this device is a test carrier for high-end polyolefin new materials. There is still a gap between the thousand ton production capacity and the overall domestic consumption scale, but the industrial operation data of the project can accumulate valuable experience for subsequent process optimization, technological iteration, and capacity expansion. After the device is put into operation, the domestic optical and medical industries will add a new domestic raw material supply channel. Whether the product can maintain stable performance, whether batch production can be consistent, and the speed of downstream customer certification promotion will directly affect the market expansion pace of this domestically produced new material in the future.Editor/Li Xiaohua